2008 Fellows

Hopewell Rugoho-Chin'ono

Occupational Information

Occupation: Television Journalist, Foreign Correspondent and Documentary Film Maker

Occupational Position: Foreign Correspondent at The New York Times

Projects

Documenting developmental projects for international organisations.

Professional History

Hopewell trained as a journalist at the Zimbabwean Institute of Mass Communications before going to City University's Journalism school in London, England. He obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Journalism and then worked with the BBC World Service as a freelance radio producer. In 2003 he returned to his native Zimbabwe to work for the BBC as a freelance correspondent. He won a British Government Chevening scholarship to go and read film at Brunel University where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in Documentary Practice in 2007. He returned to Zimbabwe in 2007 and made a multi award winning documentary film called Pain in my Heart.

Pain in my Heart won the 2008 CNN African Journalist of the year award and the Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa. After making Pain in my Heart, he set up Television International in Zimbabwe, a production house which produced news for ITN and South Africa's eTV. He has also worked with CNN International as a field producer. Hopewell is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, the third Zimbabwean journalist of only three Zimbabwean journalists to win the prestigious Fellowship. In 2009 he was the winner of the US Aid Communication award in Zimbabwe for his HIV and Aids Reporting.

In 2010 he was nominated for a Rory Peck television award for his documentary film A Violent Response. A Violent Response was also nominated for a 2010 BANFF World Television Award in Canada. He currently is a field television producer for UK's ITV News which is part of the Independent Television News Group. He worked as South Africa's eNCA foreign correspondent and producer in Zimbabwe from February 2008 to April 2014. He is a multi-skilled television journalist who does correspondence, producing, camera and editing.

He also won professional awards and for the documentary film in 2013 for Fearless: Beatrice Mtetwa & the Rule of Law. It was co-Produced with Lorie Conway The documentary film looks at the life and works of Beatrice Mtetwa, Zimbabwe

Qualifications

Nieman Fellowship in Journalism from Harvard University Master of Arts degree in Documentary Film Practice from Brunel University on a Chevening Scholarship in the UKMaster of Arts degree in International Journalism from City University, London, UKPost-grad Diploma in Mass Communications from the Zimbabwe Institute in Mass Communications, majoring in print journalism.